{ "id": "wu-zetian", "title": "Wu Zetian", "lang": "en", "source_lang": "en", "summary": "Wu Zetian (c. 624–705) was China's only woman to rule as emperor in her own right, founding the Zhou dynasty that briefly interrupted the Tang.", "category": "history", "subcategory": "", "type": "person", "aliases": [ "Empress Wu", "Wu Zhao", "Empress Wu Zetian", "Wu Hou", "Emperor Shengshen" ], "generated_at": "2026-10-08", "model": "pro/claude-haiku-5-5", "url": "https://aiwiki.page/en/wu-zetian/", "translations": { "zh-Hans": { "url": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/wu-zetian/", "json": "https://aiwiki.page/zh/wu-zetian.json" } }, "sections": [ { "heading": "", "text": "Wu Zetian (c. 624–705) is the only woman in Chinese history to rule as sovereign in her own right. Born Wu Zhao, she entered the palace of Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty as a low-ranking consort, later became empress to his son Emperor Gaozong, and after Gaozong's death in 683 governed first as empress dowager and then as emperor. In 690 she proclaimed the Zhou dynasty, which replaced the Tang for about fifteen years before the Tang was restored in 705.\n\nHer reign matters for several reasons. It changed how the court recruited officials, widened access to the imperial examinations, and made Buddhism a prominent instrument of imperial legitimacy. It also left a deep mark on the political culture of the Tang and of later dynasties. Most of the surviving narrative sources were compiled by later officials who were often hostile to female rule, so her reputation has been contested for more than a thousand years. Modern scholarship reads these accounts critically and re-examines her administrative record, her use of religion and language, and her political skill.\n\nThis entry follows her life and reign in roughly chronological order, from her origins and rise at court to her enthronement, governance, religious and foreign policies, her downfall, and the historiography and cultural memory that have shaped her reputation." }, { "heading": "Origins and entry into the palace", "text": "Wu Zetian's father, Wu Shihuo (577–635), was one of the early Tang's founding supporters. He was a member of a renowned Shanxi aristocratic family and an ally of Li Yuan, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, in his conquest of power. His postings later took him to several parts of the empire, so his daughter was not born in the family's ancestral Wenshui. Wu Zetian was not born in Wenshui, however, as her father was a high-ranking civil servant serving in various posts and locations along his life. She was most likely born in Lizhou, in present-day Sichuan, in 624. Born: 17 February 624 Lizhou\n\nHer household was divided by marriage. Wu Shihuo had two sons by his first wife, Lady Xiangli, while Wu Zetian and her two sisters were born to his second wife, Lady Yang. Wu Yuanshuang and his brother Wu Yuanqing were born of Wu Shihuo's first wife Lady Xiangli, while Wu Zetian and her two sisters were born of Wu Shihuo's second wife Lady Yang. Her mother came from the former Sui imperial house. Her mother was Lady Yang (579-670), a member of the former Sui imperial family. A popular chronology reports that after her father's death, when she was about eleven, the half-brothers mistreated her and her mother, though this account is less well documented than the family's genealogy. The death of Wu Zetian's father when she was around eleven left her family vulnerable to the feuds of his sons by a first marriage. She and her mother reportedly endured mistreatment by half-brothers\n\nWu entered the palace of Emperor Taizong as a young consort. Sources differ on the year, with She entered Emperor Taizong's harem most probably in 638 (other possible date: 636). One account says that in the eleventh month of the eleventh year of the Zhenguan era (637 AD), Emperor Taizong of Tang visited the Luoyang Palace. Hearing that the fourteen-year-old Wu Zetian was \"beautiful in appearance and demeanor,\" he summoned her into the palace, enfeoffing her as a Fifth Rank Talented Lady and bestowing upon her the title \"Wu Mei.\"\n\nThe rank of cairen sat in the middle tier of the Tang inner palace. The emperor's consorts were ranked beneath the empress in a graded hierarchy, and rank determined a consort's residence, stipend, and claim on the emperor's attention. At the age of fourteen, Wu Zetian entered the palace and became a Talented Lady (a middle-ranking imperial concubine) of Emperor Taizong of Tang. Her standing with Taizong was modest. However, it appears she was not terribly well-favoured by Emperor Taizong and did not bear him any children.\n\nThose childless consorts faced a fixed fate after the emperor's death. Taizong died in 649, and after Emperor Taizong's death in 649, she, like all of his surviving concubines who did not bear children, was sent to Ganye Temple (感業寺) to be a Buddhist nun. The temple was in Chang'an, and following protocol, Wu Zetian, along with some childless consorts, entered Ganye Temple in Chang'an to become a Buddhist nun. Her own entry into the temple is recorded in the year of Taizong's death. On the twenty-eighth day, Wu became a nun at the Ganye Temple. Taizong's son Li Zhi, who became Emperor Gaozong, had already taken the throne that year. Reign: 15 July 649 – 27 December 683\n\nHer return to the palace came through Gaozong's personal memory of her and the intrigue of his wife. On the anniversary of Taizong's death, Emperor Gaozong went to Ganye Temple to offer incense and saw Wu. The visit took place in either 650 or 651. He saw Wu Zetian and remembered how he had been impressed by her beauty, and both of them wept. Empress Wang, who had no children, saw an opening to weaken the position of Consort Xiao, who had borne a son. In apprehension that one of his concubines, Pure Consort Xiao, who was both favored and had a son, might seek to displace her, she recommended a former concubine of Emperor Gaozong's father Emperor Taizong, Consort Wu (later known as Wu Zetian), to be Emperor Gaozong's concubine as well, hoping to divert favor from Consort Xiao. Wu was told to let her hair grow back. Secretly instructed Consort Wu to grow her hair back, while suggesting to Emperor Gaozong that he take her as a concubine.\n\nThe timing of her return was also governed by mourning convention. In the fifth month of the second year of the Yonghui era (651 AD), Li Zhi's mourning period was over, and Wu Zetian re-entered the palace. Sources disagree on her initial status. One account says she came back as an ordinary palace maid, serving by Empress Wang's side. Another says she was given a consort's title at once, Emperor Gaozong of Tang recalled Wu Zetian, who had become a nun at the Ganye Temple, back to the palace and bestowed upon her the title of Consort. Her first son, Li Hong, was born in 652. Consort Wu soon became his favorite and she gave birth to Li Hong in 652." }, { "heading": "Rise within the court of Emperor Gaozong", "text": "Wu's rise inside Gaozong's household was driven by rivalry with the two women who already held his favour. Empress Wang had not borne the emperor any sons and was not favoured. Fearing that Consort Xiao, who was both favoured and had a son, might displace her, Wang brought forward the former concubine of Taizong, Consort Wu, hoping to draw the emperor's attention away from Xiao. The strategy backfired. Wu soon became dominant in the palace, overwhelming both women and eventually accusing them of witchcraft and of plotting against the emperor. In 655 Gaozong deposed and imprisoned both Empress Wang and Consort Xiao on 16 November, replacing Wang with Wu. Both women were executed within the same lunar month, on Empress Wu's order. Later writers also blamed Wu for the death of her own infant daughter and presented it as the first step of her seizure of power, a charge that historians have since questioned.\n\nThe removal of Wang's allies followed quickly. Chu Suiliang, who had strenuously opposed the change of empress, was demoted in 655 and died in exile in 658. Han Yuan, who had also objected, died in 659, just in advance of a wave of reprisals initiated by the new Empress Wu and her allies that would have resulted in his execution.\n\nThe fall of the senior statesman Changsun Wuji in 659 exposed how deeply the succession dispute had divided the court. As Gaozong's maternal uncle and one of the chancellors who had served under Taizong, Changsun had gradually fallen out of favour by failing to support the decision to depose Empress Wang. In 659 Xu Jingzong, a close ally of Wu, falsely accused him of treason; Gaozong ordered him exiled, and Xu then sent an official to force him to take his own life on the way. The purge spread to his associates: Liu Shi and Han Yuan were demoted, and in the autumn of 659 imperial messengers were sent to arrest them, but the orders were changed and they were executed instead. Contemporary accounts frame the conflict as a struggle between the Guanlong aristocratic faction and newer officials whose careers depended on the new empress. Xu Jingzong's role was significant: by Wu's order he played a major part in eliminating the chancellors opposed to her, in 657–659 and again in 665. The episode therefore showed that the contest was not only between emperor and empress but between older aristocratic lineages and officials who advanced by aligning with Wu.\n\nGaozong's declining health enlarged her role. Later in 660 he began to suffer from painful headaches and loss of vision, a condition generally thought to be related to hypertension, and he started having Empress Wu decide on daily petitions. Sources differ on when her authority became formal. One account dates her partial control from November 660 and her near-total control from January 665, when she sat behind a pearl screen during imperial meetings, hearing all reports and movements, so that real power on the state's affairs lay with her. Contemporaries called the pair the \"Two Sages,\" and there remains a lively debate about whether Wu exerted undue influence over Gaozong or whether they were equal partners in government. Opposition did not disappear. In 664 Shangguan Yi tried to persuade Gaozong to depose her, failed, and was executed; Wu then accused the deposed crown prince Li Zhong of complicity, and around the new year of 665 Gaozong, at Wu's urgent request, ordered Li Zhong to commit suicide. When the chancellor Hao Chujun objected to the idea of making Wu regent, she responded by reducing the powers of the chancellors and appointing several scholars as her advisers.\n\nHer own kin and early associates also rose in these years. Her family ties were visible in public: in 660, during a tour of Bingzhou, Wu invited her old neighbours and relatives to a feast. Empress Wu had the opportunity to invite her old neighbours and relatives to a feast. The advancement of relatives into official posts is recorded unevenly in the sources, and the individual appointments are less well documented than the purges that cleared the way for them." }, { "heading": "Succession crises and consolidation of power", "text": "Between 656 and 684, several of Emperor Gaozong's heirs were removed from the line of succession, and most of these removals touched Wu's own sons. In 656 Li Zhong, Gaozong's son by an earlier wife, was pushed aside as crown prince in favor of Li Hong, Wu's eldest son. Li Zhong was later reduced to commoner rank and placed under house arrest. After the chancellor Shangguan Yi failed to persuade Gaozong to depose Empress Wu and was executed, Wu accused Li Zhong of complicity, and around the new year of 665 Gaozong ordered him to commit suicide.\n\nLi Hong became crown prince in 656, and his death in 675 became the first of the major succession shocks. In 675, Li Hong died suddenly while visiting his parents at the Hebi Palace near Luoyang. Traditional historians generally believed the death was a poisoning ordered by Empress Wu. Li Xian, Li Hong's younger brother and Wu's second son, was made crown prince on 3 July 675. His position did not last. In 680 Wu had her associates accuse Li Xian of treason, and he was demoted to commoner rank and exiled. In 684, after Gaozong's death, Wu, then empress dowager, had her associate Qiu Shenji go to Li Xian and force him to take his own life. The pattern is notable: formal charges brought by loyal officials, followed by exile, and then a death ordered privately rather than through a public trial. With both elder brothers gone, the crown went to Li Zhe, the future Emperor Zhongzong.\n\nGaozong died in 683, and Li Zhe succeeded him. He had no real power, and authority stayed with his mother, Empress Dowager Wu. The crisis came quickly. In the spring of 684, after Zhongzong showed signs of independence, Wu deposed him, reduced him to the title of Prince of Luling, and replaced him with his brother Li Dan, the Prince of Yu, who became Emperor Ruizong. Zhongzong's reign lasted only from early January to late February 684. The former emperor was exiled to the provinces and placed under house arrest. Ruizong's enthronement changed little in practice. His reign (684–690) had Empress Zetian as regent.\n\nThe removal of Zhongzong was followed within months by the most serious armed challenge of her early regency. In late 684 Li Jingye, the Duke of Ying, who was a grandson of the general Li Shiji, rebelled at Yangzhou; he claimed to be restoring Zhongzong, and Wu sent the general Li Xiaoyi against him. Sources differ on the rebels' stated aim. One account says the rebels sought to restore Ruizong's power, which suggests the rebels were acting on behalf of Ruizong rather than Zhongzong. The rebellion failed quickly. Li Jingye was defeated and killed in flight in December 684. Its effect on the court was large. The revolt led Wu to suspect many people of opposing her, and she began to encourage secret reports. The episode also strengthened the sense among the Li clan that they were under threat. Wu gradually raised the status of herself and her Wu relatives, which made members of the Li clan suspect that she planned to slaughter them and replace the Tang with her own dynasty.\n\nHer treatment of rivals in the 680s followed the same logic. Relatives and officials were removed through accusations of treason, exile, and quiet executions, and the pool of suspects expanded after each crisis. One popular summary dates the systematic persecution of the Li family to 688, though this claim is more firmly documented in some sources than in others. By the end of the decade, the Li heirs had been reduced from a set of princes to a single figurehead emperor, and the groundwork for Wu's own enthronement in 690 was in place." }, { "heading": "Enthronement and the Zhou dynasty", "text": "Wu's move from regent to sovereign unfolded in stages. Her formal enthronement is dated to 16 October 690, and she usurped the throne of her son, Emperor Ruizong of Tang. The new regime lasted until the Shenlong Coup of 705 restored her son Zhongzong, which is why historians generally treat the Zhou as an interregnum of the Tang dynasty.\n\nThe dynastic name carried ideological weight. Wu named the state after the ancient Zhou, from whom she believed herself to be descended. Other accounts add that the name also echoed her father's nominal posthumous fief, and that the claimed Wu lineage was traced back to the Zhou royal house in reference to the illustrious Zhou Dynasty of ancient Chinese history. For her own title, she adopted Shengshen, and the sources note that she was the first woman to use huangdi, a title that had been created by the First Emperor of Qin. Her full imperial name was fixed only in 695, after several additions of characters, and it stayed unchanged for the rest of her reign.\n\nThe status of the Li heirs was rearranged to fit the new order. Ruizong was not made a regular heir apparent but was reduced to the position of crown prince, with the unconventional title of Huangsi (皇嗣, literally \"imperial heir\"). One official, Cen Changqian, is said to have proposed that the crown prince's surname be changed from Li to Wu, and Wu accepted the proposal, bestowing on him the surname of Wu as a reward. Her nephews Wu Chengsi and Wu Sansi lobbied for the succession, but she resisted. The question was finally settled in 698, when faced with foreign invasion and dissatisfaction at home, Empress Wu accepted the suggestion of the chancellor Di Renjie and recalled the exiled Li Xian to the capital Luoyang. Li Dan, who had been made crown prince, offered to yield that position to Li Zhe, and Wu agreed, creating Li Zhe crown prince, changing his personal name to Xian and changing his surname to Wu.\n\nCeremony and display were central to the regime's self-presentation. Wu did not keep up the older convention of ruling from behind a screen or curtain. In whispers, she issued commands for the nominal ruler to formally announce, and she presided over imperial gatherings herself and forbade Ruizong from meetings. The Luoyang capital was given new prestige. Wu disliked the capital Chang'an and elevated Luoyang's status, making it a co-equal capital with Chang'an, and it was renamed Shendu, the \"Divine Capital\", during the period. A Chinese reference work also states that she built a Hall of Light (Mingtang) in Luoyang to proclaim government teachings, presenting herself as reviving the ritual system of the Zhou.\n\nAdministrative renaming accompanied these moves. Soon after Emperor Ruizong took the throne, Empress Dowager Wu carried out a major renaming of governmental offices and banners. In the reorganized central government, the executive bureau was known as the Wenchang Tai and the examination bureau as Luantai, and senior officials who held the chancellor-equivalent designation of \"Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi\" were drawn from these bureaux. Era names were changed frequently, beginning with Tianshou in 690, which ran from October 16, 690 until April 21, 692, followed by a sequence of further era titles that marked each new phase of the reign." }, { "heading": "Governance, bureaucracy, and the judicial system", "text": "Examinations and recruitment\n\nThe Tang had run the examinations on a small scale before Wu's time, and the system was substantially widened during her reign. Its successor, the Tang dynasty, implemented imperial examinations on a relatively small scale until the examination system was extensively expanded during the reign of Wu Zetian. The expanded examinations included a military exam that tested physical ability, though military degrees never matched civil ones in prestige. Historians still disagree about how much of this change came from Wu's own initiative. The exact nature of Wu's influence on the examination system is still a matter of scholarly debate. Some popular timelines go further and credit her with instituting the palace examination, but this attribution is not uniform across sources.\n\nRecruitment through recommendation, favor, and clerical promotion continued alongside the examinations, so the expansion changed the mix of routes into office rather than replacing them. Its intended social effect was to bring in men without aristocratic pedigree. Accounts differ on how far this succeeded in reshaping the bureaucracy, but the examinations became a lasting channel for scholar-officials after her reign.\n\nInformants and the \"cruel officials\"\n\nIn 686 Wu installed bronze boxes that let subjects submit sealed accusations directly to the throne, bypassing ordinary channels. Wu established the tongzheng (bronze boxes) system, where citizens could submit sealed accusations or suggestions directly to the throne, bypassing traditional bureaucratic channels. The rules encouraged denunciation: accusers were supplied with post-horses and provisions, were barred from being questioned privately by subordinates, and could be promoted if their charges matched the ruler's wishes. False accusations went unpunished, and informants gathered in large numbers. Several men, including Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen, were placed in offices that oversaw prisons, producing what sources call a \"politics of cruel officials.\"\n\nThe most notorious episode occurred in 691. Lai Junchen, investigating on Wu's orders without Zhou's knowledge, reportedly proposed a method of heating an urn beneath a prisoner, and then turned it against Zhou himself. Zhou, in fear, knelt and confessed. Wu Zetian did not execute Zhou but exiled him, and on the way to his place of exile, Zhou was killed by his enemies. Lai was executed in 697. The use of such methods is widely attested, but the numbers of victims in the sources vary, and the Confucian-minded compilers who wrote the official histories had reasons to emphasize the terror. Historical sources written by Confucian scholars hostile to her rule may have exaggerated these atrocities.\n\nReversals and reassessment\n\nMany prosecutions were later overturned. In 692 the chancellors Li Youdao, Cui Shenji and others were falsely accused by the secret police official Wang Hongyi, and they were relieved from their posts and exiled to the Lingnan region. In a related case, all 36 households were slaughtered on the same day, and some 1,000 related persons were exiled. Rehabilitation came slowly. In 704 the chancellor Li Jiao urged that victims of the secret police be cleared, and an official named Huan Yanfan proposed a compromise under which those involved in the three military rebellions against Wu would be excluded; Wu accepted it. Not until Wu Zetian was overthrown in 705 were Li Yuansu's honors posthumously restored.\n\nThe central administration and favored officials\n\nWu relied on officials whose authority came from personal favor rather than from fixed offices. She granted the designation Tong Fengge Luantai Pingzhangshi, which made recipients a de facto chancellor, and this title was used for men who did not hold the regular top posts. Fengge was the legislative bureau, and Luantai was the examination bureau, which was itself regarded as a post close to chancellor rank. The instability of this arrangement is clear from the case of Cui Shenji, who was named a de facto chancellor in 692 and then, just slightly over a month later, was caught up in the false charges against his colleagues.\n\nWu also intervened directly in deliberations. When the chancellor Doulu Qinwang had officials sign a petition to give up two months' salary for the war against the Eastern Tujue without informing them of its content, the objection of a subordinate reached her, and apparently by Wu Zetian's directive, the matter of having the officials give up two months of salary was no longer mentioned. Bureaucratic critics had limited channels. The official Wei Sili petitioned for renewed emphasis on education and leniency toward the accused, but historical records did not indicate what Wu Zetian's response was to him. Palace and bureaucracy were thus connected through personal audiences and special commissions, and the judicial offices were often used alongside the palace's own investigators, as in the 691 case in which chancellor Shi Wuzi and Lai Junchen were jointly assigned to investigate treason charges." }, { "heading": "Religion and imperial image", "text": "Buddhism and the Maitreya claim\n\nBuddhism gave Wu Zetian her most important ideological resource. Her supporters did not simply use existing doctrine; they reworked it. The Great Cloud Sutra (Dayun jing), a Mahayana text whose Chinese translation dates to the early fifth century, was read as foretelling a female ruler, and monks from He Prefecture submitted the sutra, which purportedly foretold Wu Zetian's rise to power. A commentary followed, laying out the argument that the sutra was an omen of her ascent to leadership. The commentary was attributed to the monk Xue Huaiyi, who said that the pure heavenly girl was the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha, who would be reincarnated as a king, and Wu Zetian was the reincarnation of Maitreya Buddha. The presentation was staged carefully: this document was presented to Wu Zetian two months before the proclamation of the Zhou Dynasty. Wu then issued an edict that this find be commemorated by the construction of the impressive Dayun Temple.\n\nThe same circle produced further prophetic texts. Another work, The Great Spell of Unsullied Pure Light, also predicting the rise of a female monarch, of which Wu Zetian ordered 100,000 copies be printed and distributed. Clerical writing also cast her in the role of a chakravartin, a wheel-turning universal monarch. In Chou state ideology, Wu was mainly identified as this chakravartin, but also as a Maitreya incarnate. Scholars generally read this as a response to the problem that Confucian doctrine offered little place for a female ruler, while Maitreya was then one of the most popular Buddhist figures.\n\nTemple and sculpture patronage\n\nThe most visible result is the Fengxian Temple at Longmen. According to the surviving records, Emperor Gao Zong started the project around 660; in 665 this enormous undertaking came to a standstill on account of the emperor's poor health. Wu took it over: she had it completed in 676 using her own personal money. Amy McNair, whose study of Longmen donors is the most detailed recent treatment, reads the project mainly as an act of respect and fulfillment of her husband's original intention, since the cave was finished before she formally became empress in 690. Her sponsorship also reflected her interest in the Huayan (Avatamsaka) teaching, which underlies the choice of Vairocana as the central figure.\n\nThe central statue is about 17 meters tall, and a statue is 17.14m high according to a museum report. The popular claim that its face was modeled on Wu's own features is not firmly established. One study concludes that while the Vairocana Buddha was not directly modeled on Wu Zetian's appearance, she likely played a decisive role in determining its final form. Her patronage also included a large Maitreya statue: In 673, Wu provided 20,000 cash for a gigantic statue of Maitreya at Longmen Grottoes.\n\nDaoism and the Li ancestry\n\nThe Li dynasty had long claimed Laozi as an ancestor, and Wu did not abandon that claim. In the third year of Wude of Emperor Gaozu of Tang (620 CE), Li Yuan posthumously recognized Laozi as the imperial ancestor. Under Gaozong, Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, accompanied by Empress Wu Zetian, personally visited the Laozi Temple in Luyi to pay homage to their ancestor, he ordered the creation of a memorial hall. Wu's religious strategy therefore worked on two tracks: the Li–Laozi link remained the state's genealogical anchor, while Buddhism supplied the prophetic language of her own rule.\n\nHer relationship to Daoism also had a feminine dimension. Wu Zetian also proclaimed herself \"Sage Mother\", having statues of Laozi's mother as \"Sage Mother\" placed in Daoist temples. This allowed her to appear within Daoist ritual space without displacing the male ancestor. The precise balance between the two religions at court remains debated, and accounts of how far Daoism was demoted differ.\n\nRitual architecture and the Mingtang\n\nWu also used monumental ritual buildings in Luoyang to present the new dynasty. The most significant was the Mingtang (Hall of Light), a building whose ritual form was linked to ideal antiquity and to imperial sacrifice. Its design and symbolism were tied to the Zhou-era legitimacy that the Zhou dynasty claimed. Some sources describe the hall's architecture as Buddhist in character: one study notes that the monk Xue Huaiyi, was himself a leader of contemporary Maytreyan movement, and that he was the chief architect of the hall. Read together, the ritual hall and the Buddhist imagery show how Wu fused dynastic ritual with Maitreyan prophecy in the public space of her capital." }, { "heading": "Foreign relations and frontier conflicts", "text": "The Korean peninsula\n\nGoguryeo finally fell in 668. Tang then set up the Protectorate General to Pacify the East, or Andong protectorate, but it had trouble governing the former Goguryeo population and faced Silla's resistance to Tang's remaining presence on the Korean Peninsula. Silla had fought alongside Tang to destroy Goguryeo, and in 670 the Tang dynasty established the Protectorate General to Pacify the East in Pyongyang, attempting to exert full control over the Korean Peninsula, which caused dissatisfaction in Silla. Silla then sent troops to attack the Tang forces stationed at the Ungjin Protectorate and annexed the former Baekje territory, and it also sheltered Goguryeo refugees to limit Tang influence.\n\nTang was distracted by its war with Tibet, so it tacitly accepted Silla's control over the Korean Peninsula south of the Taedong River. Tang's own attempt to build a client ruler failed: it crowned Bojang \"King of Joseon\" in 677, but Bojang kept fomenting rebellions in an attempt to revive Goguryeo, and Tang exiled him to Szechuan in 681 where he died the following year. The northern lands were lost to a new state: Dae Joyeong, the son of a former Goguryeo general, established the kingdom of Balhae in 698. In the same year, Dae Joyeong's Goguryeo remnants and Mohe people defeated Tang forces at the Battle of Tianmenling.\n\nTibet and the Western Regions\n\nThe most serious external threat of Wu's period came from the Tibetan Empire, which competed with Tang for the western routes. In 686 Tang troops withdrew from the Four Garrisons after elements within the court argued for the decrease of military expenditures. The Tibetans then moved in: in 687 the Tibetan Empire established control over the Western Regions, and in 690 it defeated a Tang army at Issyk-Kul. Wu's government responded with a new campaign. In the ninth month of 692, Wu Zetian adopted the suggestion of Tang Xiujing, the Protector-General of Xizhou, to \"retake the Four Garrisons.\" She dispatched the senior general Wang Xiaojie to lead an expedition to the northwest, and in the tenth month Wang achieved a major victory over Tibet, recapturing the Four Garrisons of Anxi. Wang then established the Protectorate General to Pacify the West (Anxi Duhufu) at Kucha. Against the advice of her ministers, Wu Zetian decided to reinforce the Four Garrisons with an additional 30,000 troops. In 702, Wu Zetian created the Beiting Protectorate and granted it control of Ting Prefecture (Jimsar County), Yi Prefecture (Hami) and Xi Prefecture. Tibetan pressure did not end, however; in the spring of 696 the Tibetan Empire dealt a great defeat to a Tang army at Suluohan Mountain in Taozhou and attacked Liangzhou, but it was unable to follow up the victory due to court politics in Lhasa.\n\nTurkic groups and the Khitan rebellion\n\nRelations with the Second Turkic Khaganate were shaped by raids and appeasement. In 689, Qapaghan led a raid to frontier areas, and in response Empress Wu sent Xue Huaiyi to fortify the border. After Qapaghan succeeded his brother in 692, his succession was seen as usurpation in China. Between 693 and 706 his forces repeatedly pressed the frontier, and Wu Zetian tried to allay the situation by making peace with Qapaghan at fairly costly terms. One later summary of these campaigns dates a marriage proposal from Qapaghan's side to 703, when Wu is said to have accepted it. Another source credits the Turkic submission during her reign with securing the submission of the Second Turkic Khaganate for a time.\n\nThe Khitan rebellion of 696 exposed the weaknesses of the frontier system. Under the so-called loose-rein policy, the Khitan area was governed through local chieftains, with Zhao Wenhui as the governor-general of Yingzhou. Resentment grew when Zhao Wenhui treated Khitan chieftains as his servants and refused to provide help during a famine that struck the Khitan area in 696. Li and Sun launched a Khitan rebellion in the fifth month of 696, and Li Jinzhong declared himself \"Wushang Kehan\" and killed Zhao Wenhui after capturing Yingzhou. The first significant Chinese response, an army led by twenty-eight generals, was defeated by the Khitans in the Battle of Xiashi Gorge in the eighth month of 696. Li Jinzhong died soon after, and Sun succeeded him, only to be defeated by the Second Turkic Khaganate. The Khitans then became vassals of the Turks, and Khitan generals who had fought for Sun later served Wu: Li Kaigu and Luo Wuzheng surrendered to the Zhou, and the chancellor Di Renjie intervened and persuaded Wu Zetian to make them her generals rather than execute them. The Zhou thus relied on managed alliances and co-optation rather than a decisive military solution on the northern frontier.\n\nDiplomacy, tribute, and prestige\n\nWu's government also used submissions and tribute to project authority. In 692, over ten thousand people from the Dangxiang tribe of Tibet submitted to the Zhou, and Wu Zetian divided and settled them across ten prefectures. Not every surrender succeeded: when the Tibetan chieftain Hesu sought to submit that year, his plans were leaked, and he was captured and taken back by his own people. The Zhou also received missions from farther afield, as the Indian state sent envoys to present tribute in 692. In the Tarim region, by 698 envoys from the king of Shule offered gifts to the Tang, showing that the restored western garrisons could again attract tributary contact. The effectiveness of these relations varied, and they were closely tied to the military posture of the frontier, which is why Wu's government alternated between expensive campaigns and accommodation." }, { "heading": "Language, writing, and court culture", "text": "The Zetian characters\n\nWu's most visible intervention in writing was a set of newly invented or altered characters, now called the Zetian characters. Sources give their number variously as 12, 17, 19, or 30. The proposals came from Zong Qinke, a cousin's son of Wu's who held a post in the legislative bureau, and he submitted 12 new characters to substitute for common characters such as Tian (heaven) and Di (earth) in 689. Wu adopted and promulgated the new characters around the new year 690, and they were used until at least 705. Scholars note that Wu herself did not devise them, since the forms were proposed by officials.\n\nThe best-known example is 曌 (zhào), which Wu chose as her personal name in place of 照. The character is built from 明 (\"bright\") on top of 空 (\"sky\"), meaning \"light\" or \"clarity\" above \"sky\". Some sources also write her name with 瞾, another invented form, and this variation shows that the forms were not fully standardized.\n\nHistorians debate what the characters were for. Some read them as deliberate self-representation: Wu placed her own name and key political terms, such as those for heaven, earth, sun, moon and ruler, into a script that had long been treated as stable and tied to cosmic order. Others stress that the forms were confined largely to official documents and were not adopted in ordinary writing. Their practical reach was limited, since they fell into disuse immediately after her death. Their survival in a few inscriptions and manuscripts makes them useful for dating materials, but it also means that the political claims they carried left only a narrow trace in later script practice.\n\nLiterary officials and court poets\n\nWu's government relied heavily on literate attendants. The most prominent was Shangguan Wan'er, who rose from modest origins as a palace servant to become secretary and leading advisor to Empress Wu Zetian. Her grandfather Shangguan Yi had been executed for treason, and she had been raised within the palace service. Her duties included drafting imperial edicts on the empress's behalf, and she also evaluated poetry and prose from across the empire on behalf of the court. She is also said to have urged Emperor Zhongzong to set up academies and attract literary officials. She died in 710 during the coup led by Li Longji, the future Emperor Xuanzong.\n\nMale literati of the same period shaped the poetic forms that later Tang writers used. Shen Quanqi and Song Zhiwen are regarded as having brought the \"new style\" of regulated verse (jintishi) to its mature form, and the two were known as the \"Shen-Song\" pair. Shen's career was disrupted by exile to Annan, in present-day Vietnam, where he wrote numerous poems.\n\nWomen in court life and literature\n\nWomen held unusual visibility under Wu. Shangguan Wan'er's rise shows how a palace woman could become a channel of imperial authority, handling documents and shaping the literary culture of the court. Wu's own female relatives and attendants also moved within the political sphere. Later accounts do not agree on how much these women shaped policy, and the sources that describe them were written by officials who were often hostile to female power. Some tradition credits a princess with helping to publish Shangguan's collected poems after 710, but this claim is reported with uncertainty.\n\nContinuities and changes in Tang poetry\n\nThe poetry of Wu's era is best seen as a transitional phase. Court verse of the late 7th century was refined and formal, and the regulated forms of Shen and Song became the standard for later writers. The greater flourishing of Tang poetry came in the decades after Wu's fall, when poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu worked within these established forms, while poets like Chen Zi'ang had already moved away from court display toward a more personal voice. The court culture of Wu's reign thus provided technical tools and institutional settings for later Tang literature, even though its own products are now known mainly through a small number of surviving works." }, { "heading": "Downfall, abdication, and death", "text": "Wu's last years were dominated by her declining health and by competition over the succession. In 703 a minor illness led the Zhang brothers to accuse the chancellor Wei Yuanzhong of speculating about her death, after he had blocked their relatives' promotions and publicly humiliated one of them By 703, the Zhangs were displeased with the chancellor Wei Yuanzhong, as Wei had repeatedly rebuffed the promotion of their brother Zhang Changqi and had publicly humiliated another brother, Zhang Changyi. When Wu Zetian suffered a minor illness, the Zhangs became concerned that if Wu Zetian had died, they would be killed by Wei, and therefore falsely accused Wei. Earlier, in 701, Li Chongrun, Prince Yide, had been forced to die after discussing the brothers' conduct with his sister and her husband Prince Yide offended his grandmother by discussing Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong with his sister and her husband, and he, along with Li Xianhui and Wu Yanji, were forced to commit suicide. The brothers' dominance over her reached the point where she relied on the Zhang brothers as her eyes and ears. Cui Xuanwei proposed that her sons rather than the Zhangs should attend her, but Wu Zetian, while thanking him for his input, paid no heed.\n\nOpposition coalesced around the chancellor Zhang Jianzhi, who had been given chancellor rank in his late seventies. He joined a plot with Cui Xuanwei, Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan and Yuan Shuji, and the conspirators regarded the brothers' rising power as a threat to Li Xian's succession. In the spring of 705, as Wu's condition worsened, rumors spread that the brothers were preparing to seize power for themselves while Yao was still away from Luoyang, Wu Zetian was ill, and the affairs of state were largely decided by Zhang Yizhi and his brother Zhang Changzong. The coup was carried out on 20 February 705. The chancellors Zhang Jianzhi and Cui Xuanwei, along with ministers Jing Hui, Huan Yanfan, and Yuan Shuji, colluded with the commander of the imperial guard, Li Duozuo, and falsely claimed that the Zhang brothers were plotting a rebellion.\n\nWith Li Xian's consent, the plotters went to see Li Xian. After receiving his assent, took their forces into the palace and killed Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong at Yingxian Courtyard. They then surrounded Wu, and although she was allowed to keep the title of emperor, they had her put under house arrest at the secondary palace Shangyang Palace and forced her to yield the throne to Li Xian. Li Xian was formally restored two days later, and the Zhou name, which Wu had claimed as a link to antiquity, ended with it. Historians generally treat the Wu Zhou period as an interregnum within Tang rule. The ages reported for Wu at this point vary between sources: most give 81, while the Old Book of Tang records 83 and the New Book of Tang 82, the latter being the figure most often followed Wu Zetian died of illness in the Xianju Hall of the Shangyang Palace at the age of 82 (the Old Book of Tang records it as 83; this follows the New Book of Tang).\n\nThe restored court did not treat the coup leaders as heroes for long. In summer 705 Zhongzong made the five men princes, but he removed them from the chancellorship following Wu Sansi's recommendation, created the five coup leaders' princes—in Jing's case, Prince of Pingyang—but stripped them of chancellor positions. In the spring of 706, with all five of the coup leaders already out of the capital, Wu Sansi and Empress Wei made accusations against them, and they were demoted to more remote prefectures, and Jing Hui and others were later killed in exile. The new government also moved to rehabilitate those harmed by the earlier purges: it exonerated many of the victims and gave them honorable burials, and it posthumously honored Li Chongrun as crown prince and reinterred him at the Qian Mausoleum in 706.\n\nWu died on 16 December 705 (the 26th day of the eleventh month of the Shenlong era) at Shangyang Palace in Luoyang. She was buried beside Gaozong at Qianling, northwest of Xi'an, which is a co-burial tomb of Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi and his queen Empress Wuzetian. Before her death she had chosen to be interred with him rather than alone, which set Qianling apart from other Tang tombs. In front of the tomb stands a monument that has no inscription at all. It is cut from one piece of limestone, is quite tall and spectacular with a height of 7.53 meters, width of 2.1 meters, and thickness of 1.49 meters. Carved from a single piece of large limestone, its total weight is about 98.8 tons. Its meaning has never been settled. Popular explanations include the idea that Wu believed her achievements could not be captured in words, and that she intended later generations to judge her merits and faults Some theories suggest that she intended for future generations to judge her merits and faults. A widely repeated tour-guide explanation, which lacks documentary support, holds that the court was unsure whether to address her as emperor or empress." }, { "heading": "Historiography and modern assessment", "text": "Main narrative sources\n\nNearly everything known about Wu Zetian's reign survives in histories written generations later. The Old Book of Tang, finished in 945, was built mostly from the reign-by-reign records kept during the Tang itself. The New Book of Tang followed in 1060, and the Zizhi Tongjian, a chronicle written for rulers, came in 1084 (the 舊唐書 (JTS, Old Book of Tang, completed 945 and largely compiled from veritable records of Tang Emperors), the 新唐書 (XTS, New Book of Tang, completed 1060), and the 資治通鑑 (ZZTJ, Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, completed 1084)). The Old Book was not the first choice of later editors. Its successor was commissioned in 1044 under Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi, after which the earlier work fell out of circulation and survived only in rare copies until the Ming, when it was republished and later counted among the Twenty-Four Histories (in 1044 a new history of the Tang dynasty was commissioned; with Ouyang Xiu and Song Qi as editors, the New Book of Tang was then produced. After the New Book was presented, the original Old Book of Tang went out of print, and over centuries it became very rare.).\n\nThe compilers' outlooks shaped how she appears. The Old Book, although closer in time, was written under Confucian assumptions and treats her reign critically (Written under the influence of Confucian ideals, the Old History of Tang presented a critical view of her reign, reflecting the biases of later historians who disapproved of female rulers and political disruptions.). Source-critical work also shows that the Zizhi Tongjian often leaned on the New Book rather than on independent evidence. In the case of Princess Si, for example, its account closely follows the New Book, which attributes the infant's death to Wu (The Zizhi Tongjian records an account that follows the New Book of Tang.). Sima Guang, the Zizhi Tongjian's compiler, is also read as shaped by both Confucian values and his own political circumstances (historian Sima Guang, who was influenced by Confucianism and his own political situation, produced a biased description of Wu Zetian and the Buddhism which she promoted during her reign.).\n\nConfucian framing and the moral case against female rule\n\nThe harshest judgments date from the Song, when a stricter Confucian orthodoxy emerged. Scholars link this to the rise of Neo-Confucianism, which stressed moral discipline and social hierarchy, and so the later histories cast Wu as a morally bankrupt usurper (This perspective was a consequence of the emergence of Neo-Confucianism, a Song-era revival of Confucian thought that emphasised stricter moral discipline and social hierarchy.). Confucian doctrine tied political order to family order and warned against women taking part in government, so a woman on the throne could be framed as a disruption of cosmic balance (Confucian doctrine envisioned universal harmony as an extension of familial hierarchy, assigning men and women to distinct roles and warning against female intrusion into politics). Lisa Raphals's work explains the pattern through the gendered division between the domestic and political spheres (Lisa Raphals (1998) shows how such negative portrayals stem from Confucian gender norms, which confined women to the domestic sphere (nei) and regarded political action (wai) as improper. The fear that female political agency threatened cosmic order shaped historiographical depictions.).\n\nModern scholarship and non-literary evidence\n\nModern historians have approached the sources with more caution. Recent work, informed by feminist and postcolonial theory, examines how female rulers have been represented and treats the hostile record critically (Modern historians, however, have sketched a more nuanced picture, informed by feminist and postcolonial theory, urging us to look more critically at how female rulers have been represented.). On cruelty, one assessment holds that Wu was severe toward opponents but not more so than the male rulers of her era (We now see that Wu Zetian was indeed merciless towards her opponents, but no more so than the male rulers of her era.). Specific accusations are also tested against other evidence. The story that she strangled her own infant daughter to frame Empress Wang is regarded by some scholars such as Chen Jo-shui as fabricated (the claim that she strangled her own newborn daughter to frame the empress—an accusation modern scholars such as Chen Jo-shui (1994) consider fabricated.).\n\nScholars have also turned to materials the later compilers did not filter. Jao Tsung-i's 1974 study of stone inscriptions argued that Wu's engagement with Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism was deeper than the opportunist image allows, while also rejecting the view that she was primarily a sincere Buddhist (Through meticulous analysis of stone inscriptions, Jao reveals the depth and sincerity of Wu Zhao's various engagements with Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism throughout her life and challenges both traditional narratives that paint her as a mere opportunist as well as revisionist narratives that paint her as sincerely and primarily committed to Buddhism.). Manuscript evidence can also expose political machinery: a colophon on a Dunhuang copy of a sutra records the involvement of Indian monks in Wu's propaganda effort (The evidence for the presence and involvement of Indian monks in Wu Zeitan political propaganda comes from a colophon found on the Dunghuang manuscript of \"Ratnamegha sutra\".). Her own writings, including sixty-one prose pieces collected in the Quan Tangwen, also survive and offer a view of her self-presentation that does not depend entirely on hostile narrators (Wu Zetian was personally an author and poet, with many surviving works, including sixty-one essays under her name recorded in the Quan Tangwen \"Collected Tang Essays\").\n\nContinuing debates\n\nAssessments remain divided. Some critics object that the modern image of Wu as a feminist icon is a hasty judgment, since she did little to dismantle Confucian institutions (permeate modern culture, as Wu Zetian is attributed the label of a \"feminist icon\"; a hasty and incorrect assumption that fails to recognise that she did little to dismantle Confucian.). The question of recruitment illustrates this tension: she broadened the pool of officials, but she did not open the civil service examinations to women (she didn't open the civil service examination system or the official recommendation system up to women.). Because accusations from the later sources are intertwined with propaganda, historians still debate how to separate fact from polemic. Whether she is remembered chiefly as a ruthless usurper or as one of the Tang's most capable rulers remains an open question (Modern historians generally agree that many accusations recorded in later chronicles were shaped by Confucian hostility toward female rule, making it difficult to separate political propaganda from historical fact.)." }, { "heading": "Legacy and cultural memory", "text": "Wu Zetian has remained one of the most recognizable figures in Chinese popular storytelling, and her life has been reworked repeatedly on screen and in print. Television has been the main vehicle. A 1995 CCTV serial starring Liu Xiaoqing was first broadcast in mainland China that year and later aired across other regions. A 2006 series titled Wu Zi Bei Ge took its name from the blank stele at her tomb, a reference that links the drama to the Qianling site. The 2011 Secret History of Empress Wu divided her life among three actresses, each playing a different stage of her career.\n\nProduction choices have repeatedly drawn public attention. Among recent works, The Empress of China (2014–15) was edited after regulators judged the actresses' costumes too revealing, which set off a wider argument about how costume and sensuality should be handled in historical drama. Other debates focus on looks and character. A recent series that cast a young Wu with a soft, doll-like appearance was criticized because it clashes with the widely accepted image of a woman with a square forehead and broad cheeks. Scholars have also noted that many popular depictions share a single template: a critical study of comic-book biographies argues that nearly all of them adhere to the same 'Evil Dragon Lady' archetype, a pattern the author treats as a product of gendered historiography. Earlier works varied widely. A 1985 Taiwanese series that presented her in a largely positive light was quite controversial in Taiwan at the time of initial broadcast.\n\nHer image has also entered fiction outside China. In detective literature, she usually appears as an unnamed background figure, but in continuations of the Judge Dee novels she becomes a more prominent character who constantly plots to keep her husband on the throne. Shan Sa's novel Empress offers a literary biography in French. Among Chinese works, the Qing novel Flowers in the Mirror by Li Ruzhen is set during her rule. Although the decrees are fictional, Wu's life perhaps inspired Li and later authors who were pioneers of the emancipation of women in Qing China.\n\nHer reputation is central to discussions of women and political authority. Scholars often point out that her career runs counter to the Confucian cultural tradition of minimizing female political accomplishments. Later women at court followed a similar path: Princess Taiping (her daughter) and Empress Wei (her daughter-in-law) became involved in Imperial politics as well. In comparative history, her case is often used to test how far gender shaped the judgment of rulers, since the same tactics that drew praise or condemnation in male emperors were often read differently when used by a woman. Commentators also observe that overly negative evaluations of Wu focus on her bloody purges while ignoring her reforms, while overly positive ones frame Wu as an innocent woman forced to kill to survive.\n\nThe sites associated with her are now major heritage destinations. The Qianling Mausoleum, the joint tomb of Gaozong and Wu, lies 76 kilometers from Xi'an. Its Spirit Way includes 124 sculptures lining the route, among them the 61 Headless Stone Statues of Foreign Officials, signifying the vibrant diplomatic ties during the Tang Dynasty. The adjacent Wordless Tablet, which Wu erected, remains the best-known object at the site. Construction dates vary between sources; one states that it was built in 684 AD (with additional construction until 706). The museum was founded in 1978 and features a vast collection that primarily comes from Qianling Mausoleum. Tourism at the site is organized around these attractions, and visitors can also join cultural events that celebrate Tang dynasty heritage. Her patronage of Buddhist sculpture at Longmen, especially the Vairocana image in the Fengxian Temple complex, is also frequently cited in visitor and heritage materials, though the details of that attribution are discussed in the sections on religion and patronage." } ], "links": [ "tang-dynasty", "imperial-examination", "buddhism", "li-bai", "du-fu" ], "sources": [ { "title": "Empress Wu Zetian - New World Encyclopedia", "url": "https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Empress_Wu_Zetian" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian" }, { "title": "Wu Chengsi", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Chengsi" }, { "title": "Empress Wu Zetian Timeline", "url": "https://www.preceden.com/timeline/empress-wu-zetian" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian（A stateswoman of the Tang Dynasty and Wu Zhou periods, and the emperor of Wu Zhou.）_Baiduwiki", "url": "https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Wu%20Zetian/987157" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian", "url": "https://www.asiaculturaltravel.co.uk/wu-zetian/" }, { "title": "Li Hong", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Hong" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian Memorial Hall_Baiduwiki", "url": "https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Wu%20Zetian%20Memorial%20Hall/929415" }, { "title": "Emperor Gaozong of Tang", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Gaozong_of_Tang" }, { "title": "Empress Wang (Gaozong)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Wang_(Gaozong)" }, { "title": "Li Hong（the eldest son of Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang）_Baiduwiki", "url": "https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Li%20Hong/657312" }, { "title": "Li Sujie", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Sujie" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian, the most controversial woman in Chinese history", "url": "https://thechinaproject.com/2020/12/14/wu-zetian-the-most-controversial-woman-in-chinese-history/" }, { "title": "Chu Suiliang", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_Suiliang" }, { "title": "Han Yuan", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Yuan" }, { "title": "Zhangsun Wuji", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangsun_Wuji" }, { "title": "Liu Shi (Tang dynasty)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Shi_(Tang_dynasty)" }, { "title": "Xu Jingzong", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Jingzong" }, { "title": "Wu Zetian: Female Emperor in Chinese History, 690-705 CE", "url": "https://brewminate.com/wu-zetian-the-only-female-emperor-in-chinese-history-690-705-ce/" }, { "title": "Shangguan Yi", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangguan_Yi" }, { "title": "Li Zhong", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Zhong" }, { "title": "Hao Chujun", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hao_Chujun" }, { "title": "Pure Consort Xiao", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Consort_Xiao" }, { "title": "Gaozong", "url": "https://baike.baidu.com/en/item/Gaozong/1470898" }, { "title": "Crown Prince Zhanghuai (Tang dynasty)", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Xian_(Tang_Dynasty_prince)" }, { "title": "Emperor Zhongzong of Tang", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Zhongzong_of_Tang" }, { "title": "徐敬業 Xu Jingye - 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Her Ruthless Rise & Lasting Legacy - English Plus Podcast", "url": "https://englishpluspodcast.com/wu-zetian-concubine-empress-chinas-only-female-emperor-her-ruthless-rise-lasting-legacy/" }, { "title": "Huan Yanfan", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huan_Yanfan" }, { "title": "Wei Zhigu", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_Zhigu" }, { "title": "Shi Wuzi", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Wuzi" }, { "title": "Journal of Literature and Art Studies, June 2021, Vol. 11, No. 6, 439-442", "url": "https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/61022a9622038.pdf" }, { "title": "Wu Zhou", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_dynasty_(690%E2%80%93705)" }, { "title": "Two Asian Empresses and Their Influence on the History ...", "url": "https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/sass/article/download/11900/7317" }, { "title": "Donors of Longmen: Faith, Politics, and Patronage in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Sculpture", "url": "http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/1106" }, { "title": "Oriental capital of museums: Luoyang the magnificent (2) - 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