Wu Zetian (624-705) is the only female ruler in the history of China. Her father Wu Shihuo was one of the founders of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He served as the Minister of Works and was ennobled as the Duke of Ying.
In 637, the 14-year-old Wu Zetian was summoned to the imperial palace and became a concubine of the Tang Emperor Taizong. At that time, her father had been dead for two years.
Wu Zetian was beautiful, clever and erudite, and was duly appointed as “Cairen (Talented, a kind of rank among the imperial consorts) after entering the palace. After Emperor Taizong died, she was sent to an imperial temple to become a nun. She thought she would spend the rest of her life in the temple. Unexpectedly, Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi went to the temple one day to meditate and pray and he met her. This coincidence caused a major transition in Wu Zetian’s life.
To estrange Emperor Gaozong from his favorite concubine Xiao, the Empress encouraged Emperor Gaozong to bring Wu Zetian back to the palace. However, after Wu Zetian returned to the palace, she gradually gained the favor of Emperor Gaozong.
In 655, Wu Zetian was appointed as Empress. She persuaded Emperor Gaozong to get rid of the ministers who were against her and killed the former Empress and concubine Xiao.
Emperor Gaozong was suffering from serious illness then. He was very weak and had to ask Wu Zetian to handle state affairs in his place.
In 683, Emperor Gaozong died. Wu Zetian appointed her two sons as emperors in succession; they were Emperor Zhongzong Li Xian and Emperor Ruizong Li Dan. However, even being the power behind the two emperors couldn’t satisfy her.
In 690, Wu Zetian acceded to the “request” of the whole country to become emperor herself. She called herself “Sacred and Divine Empress Regnant” and changed the title of the reigning dynasty into “Zhou”.
After Wu Zetian became the Emperor, she made every effort to make the country prosperous, encouraging and awarding those engaged in agriculture and mulberry planting and developing the economy. The prosperity of the country was thus maintained. She initiated the system of imperial examinations and examined second-degree scholars in person. She asked people to recommend themselves to be officials above the ninth rank. However she also appointed cruel officials and stirred up a large-scale prison revolt. Lots of imperial clansmen and courtiers were butchered.
In her old age, Wu Zetian increasingly placed her trust in crafty and fawning officials.
Her dynasty became more and more corrupt.
In 705, Wu Zetian fell terminally ill. The Prime Minister seized the opportunity to acclaim Zhongzong as emperor and honored Wu Zetian as “Empress Regnant Zetian Dasheng”. In the winter of the same year, Wu Zetian died of illness at the age of 82. Before her death, Wu Zetian stripped herself of her imperial title removed and returned the country to the Family Li.
Wu Zetian was interred in a joint burial with Emperor Gaozong at the Qianling Mausoleum. She wrote no epitaph to sing the praises of her like the emperors before her but erected a stele without inscription, with a view to letting later generations judge her merits and sins.
Today, the stele still stands at the Qianling Mausoleum, about 50 km northwest of Xianyang, Shaanxi. The stele is 7.53 meters high and 2.1 meters wide and weighs over 100 tons.
